Invest NI chief executive Alastair Hamilton said the latest announcement shows that "Northern Ireland is enjoying a growing reputation as a region of expertise and knowledge in cyber security".

In the wake of WannaCry, US-based cybersecurity firm Anomali has chosen Belfast to be the home of its new cybersecurity R&D lab creating 120 jobs. As our customer base expanded globally we looked for ways we can grow our own operations and serve the needs of the market.

Northern Ireland is the number one location in the world for cyber security inward investment (FT fDI Markets 2013-16) and the number one global destination for U.S. cyber security companies with an eye for worldwide expansion. "We are pleased to make Belfast the new base for developing new products and scaling our business in Europe and beyond", he said.

CSIT, the UK's leading university centre for cyber security research, recently hosted its World Cyber Security Technology and Research Summit, which attracts global cyber security experts and leaders from the world of industry, academia and government to Belfast each year.

It forms part of a £38.5m research programme at CSIT.

Invest Northern Ireland welcomed the announcements, which it has helped support.